


(Ir)resistable

by Jain



Category: The Silver Branch - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: F/M, First Time, M/M, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 22:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/pseuds/Jain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justin and Flavius were closer than brothers; there was no room for jealousy between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Ir)resistable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amyfortuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/gifts).



"Justin!"

The call brought him up short, and Justin turned to stand in the middle of the path into town to watch Lucilia rushing from her squat little house, a small bundle in her hands.

"Good morning," Justin said politely when she reached him, and she gave him a distracted smile.

"Oh! Good morning." Then she pressed the bundle into his hands. "Here, this is for you."

"Wh-what is it?" he asked, even as he drew the cloth back with one hand: the question given more out of a desire to prolong the conversation than because he required her answer.

"Eggs," Lucilia said. "For your help with Mama's tooth. She's been ever so much better since you showed her how to make that poultice. Even her headaches have gone away--she'd no idea that her bad tooth was causing them until they stopped."

"You already paid me," Justin said and tried to return the bundle of eggs, but Lucilia would have none of that.

"Paid you in a cup of beer and a slice of bread?" she asked with faint scorn. "That was hospitality, not payment."

Lucilia's family was poor, but Justin quickly saw that to protest their gift further would be to insult their honor. "All right," he said. "I accept your p-payment. I can return the cloth to you tomorrow?"

Lucilia laughed and shook her head. "Anytime in the next few days will be fine. I know how far you have to walk to get here."

If Justin were more like Flavius--handsome and self-assured with it--he could perhaps respond that it was a trifling distance if he could only have the pleasure of her company at the end of it. But though Lucilia had always been friendly to him, he couldn't be certain that it wasn't mere kindness...and now, gratitude for helping her mother. So he simply nodded his agreement and said, "Sometime soon, then."

"Sometime soon," she repeated with a bright smile and returned to her home, casting a look back at him just before ducking under the low lintel.

Justin rearranged his grip on the bundle as insurance against the eggs' falling and breaking and headed home with an uncertain yet irrepressible grin.

* * *

"What do you have there?" Flavius asked when he came to greet Justin. "I thought you were just going into town to check on a patient."

"I was," Justin said. "B-but Lucilia caught me on my way home to give me these eggs."

"Strange sort of courting gift," Flavius remarked. "And shouldn't it be _you_ giving presents to _her?_ "

Justin blushed hotly. "No, they're from her family, not her personally. I treated her mother for toothache last week. I'm not even sure Lucilia likes me like that." He _hoped_ , of course, but that wasn't the same as knowing.

"Of course she likes you. Isn't it obvious?" Flavius said with a queer sort of intensity, sounding scornful...or perhaps angry?

Justin blinked at him in surprise. Flavius had never wanted for female admirers himself, with his good looks and charisma and heroism. And even not counting Flavius's manifold advantages, he and Justin were best friends, closer than brothers; there was no room for jealousy between them. Surely, _surely_ Flavius couldn't be angry that one woman out of a hundred might prefer Justin to him.

In the early years of their friendship, Justin might not have remarked on Flavius's odd behavior: too timid and fearful of losing Flavius's regard to risk challenging him. But they'd been through deadly danger and years of conspiracy together. He couldn't fear Flavius's abandonment any more than he could fear that one of his limbs might tire of him and wander off on its own.

"Is that a problem?" he asked, then watched with increasing disquiet as Flavius's expression crumpled for a bare moment before resolving into a bright--and obviously insincere--smile.

"No, of course not," Flavius said. "It's high time for you to marry, and I've only heard good things about Lucilia. She'll be a fine housewife and an even better mother, I've no doubt."

The words were all right, as well as his expression, now that he'd set it, but his eyes were all wrong. Justin firmed his resolve and said what needed said: "If you love her, I won't--"

But Flavius only laughed at him, though to Justin it seemed that his laugh held little humor. "Oh, you idiot," he said. "As though she'd ever choose me simply because you nobly stepped aside." And as Justin readied himself to say that, no, he was fairly certain she _would_ , Flavius added, "In any case, I don't love her, I love _you_."

The words were said lightly enough, but Justin was staring directly into his eyes, and he could see the truth of them for himself. And even so, they were so unexpected and so unbelievable that he said, "You _what?_ "

"Love you," Flavius said, more bleakly than those words deserved. "I could hardly help it. You're so..." He gestured helplessly at Justin, whose turn it was now to give a humorless laugh.

"Almost everyone seems to find me entirely resistable," he said.

"Not Lucilia," Flavius pointed out. "And not me."

"You...really?" Justin said, still stuck on the wholly improbable idea.

"I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry," Flavius said quickly, and Justin realized:

Flavius would never lie to him about something like this, and every moment that Justin spent wondering and dithering were _hurting_ him.

"Flavius," he said and stepped closer to put one hand to his cheek. Flavius flinched minutely and then visibly steeled himself, and Justin's heart throbbed for him. "Anything you want of me, you can have," he swore. "Of course I l-love you, too."

And then it was Flavius's turn to blink at him in bewilderment. He opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly Justin couldn't bear the long drawn-out uncertainty of this conversation and pressed forward to kiss him on the mouth: a quick, soft touch of lips that he repeated again and then again. "I do, so much," he whispered between kisses, and Flavius's arms went about him to hold him almost painfully tight.

* * *

Justin watched with a nigh unbearable sense of pride and tenderness as Lucilia and Flavius danced together, Lucilia's crown of flowers dropping petals onto her wedding dress. Lucilia had sworn that she didn't mind what he and Flavius were to each other--actually, she'd seemed surprised that Justin thought it worth mentioning at all; apparently she'd assumed that Justin wouldn't bother confining himself to a single lover other than her, much less one that he sought her approval of. But Justin hadn't quite believed it until he'd seen the easy way she had with Flavius, even after the afternoon she'd caught them kissing unawares despite all their efforts to be discreet.

He let his glass be refilled for what had to be the fourth or fifth time and tipped it back quickly, then went to reclaim his bride from Flavius's arms. Lucilia was flushed with excitement and wine and the exertion of dancing, and he kissed her hot little mouth, relishing the way she gasped against his lips, then grinned at Flavius's sly wink. He'd be sure to find the opportunity to kiss Flavius later.


End file.
